Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily

by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. .

 

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

 

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

 

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart. (description from Amazon.com)


I wanted so much to love this book.  First off it has a GORGEOUS cover that I could not stop staring at... Then, it is a totally awesome reconceptualization of the Peter Pan tale.  The way that Anderson reimagined Neverland and its inhabitants was great.  I loved getting to see the way that Tiger Lily's tribe of Sky Eaters functioned and how that influenced who she was and how she fit into the traditional tale we all know. 

The major problem that I had, what kept me from loving the book, was the narrative perspective.  This tale is actually told from Tinker Bell's point of view.  She narrates the events in Tiger Lily's life and her interactions with Peter, Wendy, the lost boys and the pirates.  I had such a hard time connecting in this third person sense.  Though Tink told the reader what emotions and thoughts she picked up from Tiger Lily and those around her, there was still a huge feeling of detachment. 

Even having not felt as connected to the characters as I wanted, I feel that this is a book worth reading.  Revisiting the classic tale this way was captivating.  This truly was a more grown-up realistic version that I wish I could have dived into a little more directly...

Full disclosure: Purchased book for my Nook